Months after Jain teen died fasting in Hyderabad, cops drop case citing ‘lack of evidence’
Six months after a 13-year-old girl died after fasting for 68 days, the Hyderabad police have now allegedly dropped the case against her parents.
Aradhana Samadaria, a 13-year-old girl from the Jain community who resided in Hyderabad with her family, died in October last year after fasting for 68 days for religious reasons. Activists had filed complaints against her parents for violation of child rights, but apparently, the case has now come to a dead end.
Balala Hakkula Sangha (BHS), a child rights organisation based in Hyderabad which had filed the case against Aradhana’s parents, has alleged that the police has been biased towards the accused from the very beginning
BHS has alleged that Aradhana had been forced to fast by her parents, and had filed a complaint with the police demanding action against them. They had lodged a complaint with the Market police station in Secunderabad under Section 302 (murder) of the IPC and several sections of the Juvenile Justice Act.
BHS President Achyuta Rao said that the police booked Aradhana’s parents Lakshmichand and Manisha Samadaria under Section 304 (II) of the IPC – culpable homicide not amounting to murder – and Section 75 of the JJ Act “with great difficulty.”
The police however informed them on Saturday that the case against the parents has been dropped.
In a statement released on Sunday, BHS President Achyuta Rao has accused the police of closing the case without conducting “in-depth inquiry” or “examining the evidence”. Rao wrote that the police just misused its powers and closed the case by calling it “false”, and also stated lack of evidence.